"a triumph, having the essence of the 2004 version, it's campy and fun, it will have you tapping your feet and smiling throughout"

Late last year, the decision was made to put Mean Girls out in Cinemas rather than just releasing it on streaming. I feel that was a good idea since the Musical version of Mean Girls is a triumph from start to finish, it is a familiar story with a healthy injection of music.

Curiously, the fact that it is a Musical has been missing from the promotional material, except for the inclusion of a music note in the logo and a few bars from one of the songs in the Musical, with the majority of trailers using a song that doesn't even appear in the film.

So as we know, Mean Girls revolves around Cady Heron, a formerly homeschooled student who is enrolled into High School for the first time where she befriends Janis (Auli'i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), a couple of outcasts. When Cady is also befriended by Queen B Regina George (Reneé Rapp), a plan is concocted to bring her down and hilarity ensues.

Many scenes and scenarios are revisited in this Tina Fey penned Musical adaption, speaking of Fey, she returns to her role of Ms. Norbury from the 2004 version. Joining her is Tim Meadows back as the Principal of the school, Mr. Duvall.

The cast is strong, and is made stronger with the inclusion of Busy Philipps as Mrs George, Ashley Park as Madame Park (the French teacher) and Jon Hamm as Coach Carr.

Reneé Rapp portrayed Regina George on stage, she was popular then and further explores the character, all of the singing is on point in my opinion, stuck in the middle of the feud between Regina and Janis is Angourie Rice as Cady Heron and she's wonderful in the role made famous by Lindsay Lohan. Both ladies make their respective roles their own, making sure that it isn't a carbon copy or caricature of what came before.

On the other side is Janis played wonderfully by Auli'i Cravalho, the girl is a phenomenal singer and this is the first time I have seen her in a live action role and she made Janis her own, so much so that in the credits there's a change to the characters surname from Ian to 'Imi'ike which is a nod to the Actresses heritage.

Mean Girls is a triumph, having the essence of the 2004 version, it's campy and fun, it will have you tapping your feet and smiling throughout, it is beautifully acted and if you aren't a fan of musicals, then there is always the 2004 version, I love musicals, so I got a kick out of this version. Both tellings of the story have their place and seeing the Musical made me want to revisit the 2004 original.